When I look back at the last decade of health IT what stands out is our struggle with security and transparency. The U.S. has struggled with carrying out the intent of HIPPA, our nation’s regulatory answer to the portability of protected healthcare data, almost since its inception in 1996. The HITECH act of 2009 anticipated innovation and the sharing of data through EHR adoption and implementation, but we still have yet to secure the data of vulnerable patients. In 2019, HHS announced it was changing the penalties under HIPPA, moving to a tier system and lowering fines on three of the four tiers. This is counterintuitive to the breach activities we’re seeing, in my opinion.
Transparency has also been elusive. Over the past decade, regulation has sought to make the transparency of patient data related to the cost of care more readily available. Most recently enhancements to the Public Health Service Act were adopted to ensure price transparency but to date, patients are reporting the data to be confusing and true transparency denied.
Stacy Lindau, MD, MAPP – Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at NowPow